Consumers protection regarding advertising

1. Introduction Advertising promotes goods, services, companies and ideas, often through paid messages. The purpose of these messages is to stimulate the wishes of the potential clients but moreover to form positive strong opinions in connection with the product or the company that it is promoted, the last goal being possible due to the psychological manipulation which comes in a subtle form or not. Companies should not be limitate in offering goods and quality services. They also have to inform their consumers about the advantages. This requires an excellent use of the promoting instruments of advertising, sales promotion and PR. Countries members of the U.E. annual spend about 45.4 billions EUR with advertising. As the recession comes to an end and the national economies of member countries start to bloom again, it is predicted a growth of the advertising outlay in most of U.E. countries. The sponsors, those who financialy suport advertising actions, remain cautios concerning the optimal use of the advertising budget so that the comunication goals are achieved. Organisations handle advertising in several ways. When it comes to small and medium companies it could be someone from marketing or commercial department who handles the budget. But in big companies there may be specialized departments which handle budgeting, collaborations with agents in industry, exhibitions sales and so on. . 2. Types of publicity The informative publicity is intensively used on the market in the pioneers work period of some products categories, when the objective is to generate a primary request. This way, the yoghurt industry had, at the beginning, to inform the consumers regarding the nutritional advantages of yoghurt and its multiple utilizations. Persuasive publicity becomes more important in the competition period, when a firms objective is to attract a selective request for a certain brand. Most of the commercials belong to this category. For example, the Chivas Regal company is trying to convince the clients that preferring this whisky brand they are offered a higher social status than the one offered by using other Scottish whisky brands. Some persuasive commercials have moved towards the category of comparative publicity, which is trying to establish the superiority of

certain brand product by comparing it to one or more brands belonging to the same product class. The reminding publicity is very important in the case of the products which are in the maturity period. The expensive commercials in four colors for the Coca Cola products from the stores, do not have the purpose to inform or to convince the people to buy Coca-Cola, but to remind them to do it. A form related to the reminding publicity is the ensurance publicity, which is looking to convince the persons who frequently buy a certain product that they have made a good choice. The commercials for cars will often represent satisfied clients who are happy with the specials characteristics of the new car that they have bought. 3. The publicitys influence on the consumer The influence of consumers to buy products to which publicity is made, is made through persuasion. Persuasion is the process through which the interlocutor is convinced to do something. It is a human activity which is devolving naturally. Each of us convince and influence more or less, just like each of us communicate more intensely or more superficial. The ten rules of persuasion are building efficiency in communication. 1. The reciprocity rule is referring to the wish to give something in exchange, which we feel when we get something significant for us. 2. The contrast rule is referring to perception: two different objects seem even more different if they are placed one next to the other. 3. The friends rule shows that are let ourseleves much too easy convinced by the ones who prove us that they take into consideration our own interests ( by the ones who behave like true friends). 4. The expectances rule says that we tend to perform at the level of the expectances of those whom we respect. 5. The association rule says that we tend to appreciate products or services sustained by people we appreciate (why would Nadia Comaneci be invited to do milk commercials?) 6. The consistency rule: when a person sustains that a written or oral point of view, will defend that point of view right in front of some very strong contradicting proofs. 7. The penury rule: we appreciate at a higher value the things which we perceive that can be found in a limited quantity. 8. The conformism rule: we tend to accept the proposals of the majority of the people who consider them as being acceptable. 9. The power rule: we are invested with power by the others as much as they perceive that we have authority, strength or experience. 10. The time rule: our behavior is different depending on the preponderant orientation of the attention: in the past, present and future.

The person who takes the decision does it many times based on other types of arguments than the logical or the logical-correct ones, being convinced by the necessity or the apparent importance of the action or of the respective thing. In this sense we can say that the commercials are persuasive. Another technique used to make advertising commercials is credibility. Precision builds trust. Without precision in what you are saying, you give the impression that one can negotiate more, can discuss, can have more time, etc. A pretty recent commercial for a detergent shows that by using it you can get rid of 99,99%of the spots. Have research been made to get to this result? The more precise you are in what you are saying the more credible you will be, especially when we are talking about numbers or time. More, it seems that the prices which end with an odd number are more convincing than the ones with an even number. It is very easy to convince sometime if you tell that someone that your products are appreciated by other people. It is the reason for which the celebrities show up in commercials, the reason for which another person writes the presentation for a book which has been launched on the market and maybe even the reason for which the mawkish shows from TV have so many fans. The testimonies function! Many specialists in the success psychology have noticed this. Famous authors from USA insert images of testimonies in the books or web pages they launch on the market. 4. Protection organisms of the publicity consumers The protection organisms of the publicity consumers in Romania are: NAC (The National Audiovisual Council) and the Romanian Council for Publicity (RCP). NAC is the only settlement authority in the audiovisual programs domain, an autonomous public institution controlled by the Parliament, led by a council formed of 11 members. These are named, for a six years mandate, by the Romanian Parliament, at the Senates proposal, the Members of Parliament, the Romanian President and the Govern. NAC is the guarantor of the public interest and the only authority of settlement in the audiovisual communication area. Our institutions role is to ensure an audiovisual market based on the freedom of speech, pluralism and free competition. In the same time, NAC must make sure that the TV and radio stations respect the norms regarding the correct report, the private life, the human dignity and the under age protection. In what the legal frame is concerned, NAC functions after the law number 504 in 11 July 2002.Regarding the publicity, there are stipulated a series of articles, such as: art. 27, line 3: The subliminal

techniques are forbidden in publicity and teleshopping., line 4: The masked publicity and the masked teleshopping are forbidden Another important aspect related to publicity, mentioned in the audiovisual law is mentioned in art.28, line 6: It is forbidden the insertion of publicity or teleshopping during a religious service transmission. The conditions which must be respected by publicity are mentioned in art.29, line 1:Publicity, including self promoting publicity, and teleshopping must respect the following conditions: a) Not to affect the physical, psychical or moral development of the under age. b) Not to prejudice the human dignity c) Not to include any form of discrimination on reason of race, nationality, sex or sexual orientation; d) Not to bring any offense to the religious or political beliefs of the viewers and radio listeners. e) Not to stimulate the harmful behavior for health or populations security; f) Not to stimulate the behavior harmful for the environment; g) Not to stimulate the indecent or immoral behavior; h) Not to promote, directly or indirectly, occult practices. In the art. 30 and 31 of the same laws are mentioned the forbidden publicity forms : Any form of publicity or teleshopping for cigarettes or for products made for tobacco is forbidden, respectively Publicity or teleshopping for medical products and medical treatments for which a medical prescription is necessary is forbidden. Ensuring a high level of protection for the consumers represents one of the fundamental objectives of the National Authority for the Consumer Protection, objective established through the ANPC strategy 2005-2008 and in concordance with the EU policy in the consumer protection area. Here we can mention the Law 363/2007 regarding the combat of unfair commercial practices, which clearly defines notions like product, consumer, merchant, the merchants practice, the behavior code and it explains the situations in which the attraction methods of the clients are considered unfair, the classification being made in: misleading commercial practices (through action or omission) and aggressive commercial practices. An important point of this law is represented by the misleading publicity. Mass-media is the first choice of the economical operators who want to promote a product and to increase their sales. With the purpose of intervening quickly for the elimination of the negative effects of the misleading publicity made through the audiovisual, publicity which affects the economical interests of

the consumers, the law stipulates the obligation of NAC to give the identification data of the economical operators involved in the regarding publicity spots. This way, ANPC has closed a protocol of collaboration with NAC, which stipulates, beside the general objectives referring to the quick exchange of information, and the express situation in which the NAC, at the ANPC solicitation, will analyze the signaled situations. In the shortest time, the results of the analysis in public meeting of these cases will be made public, then each institution will adopt the measures according to the competences they have through law. Another protection organism of the publicity consumer in Romania is, like we have mentioned above, The Romanian Council for Publicity (RCP) specialized only in the publicity area. RCP or RAC (Romanian Advertising Council) is a professional, non-governmental, non profit and independent organization. The basic activity of the Council is self settlement in publicity. In present the Romanian Council for Advertising offers the copy advice service too. RAC was founded in 1999. The initiative of making a union to support the advertising industry from Romania has belonged t more companies and to International Advertising Association, IAA. The companies which founded RAC, with IAA, are: Brewery Holding S.R.L. (Heineken Romania), Henkel Romania S.R.L., Procter&Gamble Marketing Romania S.R.L. and Unilever Romania S.A. The activity of the Romanian Advertising Council is based on the Practice Code in Advertising, elaborated by its members. The code represents a set of ethical rules to be respected by all the persons involved in the advertising area and in any form of commercial communication. The purpose of the document is to support the development of a decent and honest business environment in Romania by offering a guide of form and content for a correct, honest and decent report to the consumer and industry. RAC has 50 members: companies, advertising agencies, media and associations. At its turn, the Council is a member in other European organizations (EASA European Advertising Standards Alliance) or global (IAA International Advertising Alliance). 5. Comparative analysis between the Romanian and American Advertising In the last 3 years, advertising in USA has moved towards online. From virals launched through youtube.com, to the companies which gather like-s on Facebook.com, the whole US industry is looking towards social media, internet users and products consumers, opinions, on-line opinions. Some of the biggest advertising companies in USA have taken place on Internet. Among these we have: Old Spice shower gel

(31.435.981 visualizations), the Entertainer50 Cent (29.527.795 visualizations) correcting Pasta Tipp-ex (16.211.001 visualizations). Under another aspect, from 2006 until now, in USA, the Saatchi & Saatchi company is trying to impose a new advertising concept, named Lovemarks. This concept is the continuation of what we know under the name of lovebrands (Coca-Cola, Pepsi, IKEA etc.), while in Romania, advertising is starting to distinguish the terms brand and trade mark. A check-up of the incomes from advertising between Romania and USA is not possible because of the different dimension and economical strength between the 2 states. Although publicity is related to imagination to a great extent, and the Romanian people is well known for this, USA surpasses Romania a lot in what advertising is concerned. The advertising inventors, USA practices this way of communication right from the 60s, and with such a dynamic economy it is normal for the things to evolve in what advertising is concerned. 6. Conclusions and proposals Advertising occupies an important place in the economical activity area, this thing being seen in the contribution to the incomes from the commerce domains. In this paper we have followed the analysis of the aspects related to the consumer protection in the advertising area. The law that supports advertising in Romania is the Advertising Law no.148 from 26 July 2000. The organisms on publicity consumer protection in Romania are: The National Council of Audiovisual and the Romanian Council for Publicity.